Structural modifications induced in ZIF-8 by interaction with Cu2+ions in water remediation applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOF) are very promising materials, as they exhibit many exciting properties inspiring many outstanding applications. One very intriguing property of a class of MOF consists in their ability to breath, i.e. to undergo a crystalline to-crystalline structural change, usually induced by modifying the temperature, applying external pressure or by adsorbing of specific gases [1]. Such structural changes in turn affect many properties of the material, further increasing the potential applications of these materials. The advantages of the breathing process in sensing applications, for example, are obvious. One of the most interesting breathing MOF is MIL-53(Al) [2]. It has strong potentialities in many fields, as adsorption, separation and storage of gases, catalysis, drug delivery, sensing [3,4]. Since its first report, MIL-53(Al) has gained the role of prototype system, giving the opportunity to unveil many properties pertaining to such outstanding class of highly reactive (breathing) MOF....